Page 75 of Statler

“I told him that I already had plans to eat fish with you tonight⁠—”

“Speaking of which…” Tonk interrupted. Unfolding his big body from one of the Adirondak chairs, he went over and lit the grill.

“Okay. Continue,” he said as he sat back down.

Eliza cleared her throat. “I let him know that since I’d made those plans, I wasn’t about to change them,” she finished.

Statler winced. “How did he take that?”

She chuckled, which caught Stat off guard.

There shouldn’t have been anything funny in Flazer’s reaction to what the man had certainly perceived as insubordination.

“He got this odd gleam in his eyes, then told me…okay.” She shrugged, showing the confusion she’d also mentioned.

“Okay?” Pipes questioned. “Just like that?”

“Well, of course he put his own spin on things,” she demurred. “Which is where the irony comes in. My father, just like Statler when he asked about my bookkeeping, is looking for information. Only William’s request isn’t innocent.”

Eliza’s face became serious.

“My father wants me to keep a record of everything that is said tonight. And that report needs to be on his desk first thing in the morning.”

She looked around to see how they were all taking her big reveal.

Statler’s initial reaction was outrage that the man would use his daughter like that, but then he realized they’d just been handed a perfect opportunity to feed Flazer exactly what they wanted.

He forced a chuckle. “Okay. What do you say we help you with that? We can make up some pretty good stuff.”

Eliza grinned, not naysaying his suggestion for a moment. “I actually approve of that idea. It’s not like my father to be so nosy, but it will serve him right if he has to read a bunch of jokes and stuff.”

“I’ll help Sherb draft something. I’m good at yucking things up,” Dizzy affirmed with a snicker.

“I know you are,” Eliza agreed. “I figured that out within the first few minutes of meeting you. You’re the joker of the bunch.”

“Not just the joker,” he preened. “I’m the homespun, Mark Twain of these plebes.”

Sherbert, ignoring Dizzy’s posturing, began typing again. “We’ll work on a likely document that you can give him, if that’s okay?”

Eliza nodded enthusiastically. “More than okay,” she admitted. “I wasn’t looking forward to going home tonight and having to write something up. You’re saving me a lot of work.”

“Not a problem. It’s what I do,” Sherbert acknowledged.

“Okay. What else?” Statler asked, already knowing Eliza had more to say.

He could see that she was still fidgeting.

“He also, um, told me that I have to make a visit to your job-site every day, and document your progress.”

Statler worked hard to keep his jaw from tensing.

So, the man was setting Eliza up to spy on them, huh? Hoping she might turn up something that would warrant Flazer’s suspicions.

That meant they’d have to be very careful from here on out. There’d be no more “discovering” things during the day. They’d have to save all their ops for very late at night, and even then, they’d have to use extreme caution.

Clearly, Flazer’s dictum wasn’t because of anything they’d done. Yet. But his paranoia clearly demanded that he keep tabs on any new people in town, in case a threat to his “livelihood” emerged.

Statler couldn’t let Eliza know that a nerve had been struck; finding themselves under surveillance.